{"id":68049,"date":"2025-08-15T04:19:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/68049\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T04:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:19:03","slug":"really-proud-ex-england-star-says-samoa-test-debut-amazing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/68049\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Really proud&#8217; ex-England star says Samoa Test debut &#8216;amazing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Once a one-cap <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> rookie under Eddie Jones, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jacob-umaga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacob Umaga<\/a> is heading into his third full season with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/benetton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Benetton<\/a> after making his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/samoa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Samoa<\/a> debut this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The fly-half won his only England cap against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/argentina\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Argentina<\/a> in 2021 before joining the Treviso club in 2022, and returned to La Ghirada this week as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lions<\/a> entered the second phase of their pre-season.<\/p>\n<p>All of the club\u2019s Italian internationals have now rejoined after summer Test duty, with Umaga fresh from his first appearance for Samoa in last month\u2019s match against Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy first time with Samoa was amazing,\u201d he told BenTV, the club\u2019s video channel. \u201cI played alongside a few teammates I\u2019d met back when I was playing in Auckland. Seeing them again was fantastic, and I\u2019m really happy to have played at that level of international rugby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was younger, my dream was to play for Samoa. My dad represented Samoa twenty years ago, so I\u2019m really proud and happy to have worn those colours and, in doing so, represented my dad and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in Treviso, Umaga said pre-season training has been a sharp reintroduction to the Italian summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first day was really tough \u2014 physically very intense. The first training block is hard work, and then you\u2019ve got to adapt to the climate and the heat,\u201d said the former Wasp. \u201cWe\u2019re all back together as a group and we want to strengthen as a team, knowing we need to be ready for the first league match against Connacht.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old says Benetton\u2019s ambitions this season (his fourth with Italian side) are clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a team we want to go as far as we can in the URC with the aim of reaching the playoffs, and we want to go deep in the Challenge Cup. I think we\u2019ve got the ability to do that, but right now the most important thing is to focus on the start of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Umaga says improving his Italian is key to stepping up his influence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be able to speak Italian, but I want to keep improving so I can express myself better on the pitch and build stronger connections with my teammates off it. And, like any fly-half, I want to be a leader; both on the field and in the dressing room.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once a one-cap England rookie under Eddie Jones, Jacob Umaga is heading into his third full season with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-68049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}